


what life is and what it's not

by belovedyuuri (belovedstill)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Fanboy Katsuki Yuuri, Ice Adolescence (Yuri!!! on Ice), M/M, Young Victor Nikiforov, Yuuri is the partner we all need and deserve, partly inspired by the movie poster, teenage Viktor isn't sad here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 10:49:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15141458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belovedstill/pseuds/belovedyuuri
Summary: Two sunsets, two dreams, two seemingly different lives: Viktor always comes back to the very same beach that witnessed his every high and every low.This time, he's not alone.





	what life is and what it's not

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by the gorgeous Ice Adolescence poster that was released after Yuri!!! on Concert c: written as part of my collab with [Este](http://estellie.tumblr.com/) who drew [this beautiful fanart](http://estellie.tumblr.com/post/175480187591/my-part-of-collab-with-belovedyuuri-a-quick) <333 Isn't it gorgeous? I can't stop looking at it, it makes me feel so warm *cries*
> 
> beta'd by the absolutely wonderful [Abby](http://japansace.tumblr.com/), thank you <3

The sky is bleeding. That’s all Viktor can think as he sits on the shore, waiting for Makkachin to come back with the ball he’s just thrown her. The sky is bleeding behind the sparse prison of clouds grazing the horizon, and he’s the only one there to witness its last call for mercy.

Just like in one of the books he loves to read, he thinks, pleased.

It’s such a heartbreaking way to think about sunsets—but he loves it. His soul aches when he does, expanding, like one’s body does after training for a long time and gaining muscles. The only difference is soul doesn’t tear like skin; no marks are left behind. An invisible transformation, readying the core of him for so much more than what’s already in his life.

There _is_ so much more waiting for him; he could burst thinking about it.

Maybe there are no real knights in shining armour anymore or duels for the hands of beautiful princesses—or gorgeous princes. Maybe nobody will show up at midnight under his window, sitting on a white horse, ready to sweep him off his feet and steal him for the night. Maybe nobody will ever sacrifice something so dear to them out of love for him.

He can still dream about it, though, right there on the beach, playing with a strand of his long hair as he watches the sun drown in the water.

(“He looks like Rapunzel,” one child whispered the other day; Viktor grew a full inch when he heard it.)

Magical is what he longs for his life to be; and magical it will be. He’s sure of it.

 

* * *

 

 

“Yuuri~”

“I know, I’m sorry—just a moment, I promise.”

Viktor sighs and takes one last look at the sunset, enjoying the way such a simple event can transform the whole sky into the most beautiful hues of pink and purple and orange. They’re sitting on the very same beach he used to come to as a teenager. It seems smaller now—not as enchanting. Even the sun slowly crawling down towards the line where the sky meets the water doesn’t look as dramatic as he remembers.

It feels real.

Yuuri’s not _looking_ though, his eyes having been fixed on his phone for the last five minutes, if not longer.

Viktor watches for a moment how the engagement ring on Yuuri’s right hand flares with the gold of the sun as his fingers dance on the touch keyboard. He asks, “How do you even have reception here?”

Yuuri shrugs his shoulders a bit and simply continues to furiously type away. He looks like a man on a mission, brows furrowed, a frown firmly set in place where his glasses rest on his nose.

God, he loves this man.

The sun won’t wait for them though.

“What are you even doing?” Viktor asks and leans forward to see—but before he can read anything, Yuuri yelps and presses the phone to his chest, his body nearly curling around it to protect it from Viktor’s eyes.

He’d get suspicious if he didn’t trust his fiancé unconditionally.

For a brief moment, Yuuri sits there, looking very much like a deer caught in the headlights, staring at him. Viktor can nearly hear the cogs wearing inside of his brain before he finally says, “Um—well... You’ll think it’s silly...”

_Oh?_

“Now you’ve got me curious.”

Yuuri watches him for a moment, searches Viktor’s face for _something_ until his shoulders finally relax.

“There’s this one guy on Twitter,” he says quietly, eyes flickering back to the screen of his phone. “He said that when you were younger, your long hair wasn’t natural, that you had extensions—or worse, a wig,”  he adds with a grimace, toying with the home button on his phone. His grip tightens then, his voice getting stronger. “I’ve never heard such bullshit in my _entire life_ , Vitya. You’ve talked about how you grew your hair out in the interview for _Ice Skating Weekly_ , and you’ve shared your hair routine more times than I can count on both hands! Everybody knows that. And there are high-resolution photos of you in your teenage years and you can’t see any extensions there, and that’s because there _aren’t any,_ but _some_ people, apparently, don’t know what extensions even look like.” He shakes his head and takes another breath. “Never mind the photos from your childhood your mom shares on Instagram. You have long hair in all of them. This guy obviously didn’t even _look_ at them if he thinks so.”

Viktor stares at him all the while, lips curled, amused. He blinks and breaths in—but Yuuri’s not finished yet.

“And he dares have your name in his handle, too! ‘Victorsk8tonme1.’” He snorts and types another word or two. “ Your hair wasn’t fake; _he_ is.”

And what is one simple Viktor Nikiforov supposed to do when a beautiful man defends his honour with such fiery passion?

“Wreck him, love.”

Yuuri looks up from his phone, fingers still, cheeks pink from his righteous anger. The frown that was there just seconds ago is replaced with a smile that lights up his whole face. “I’m on it,” he says—and then, in a softer tone—almost a whisper—he adds, “I love you.”

The sunset looks more beautiful than ever when it reflects in Yuuri’s eyes as Viktor kisses him.


End file.
